<p>School: NUSHS
Cumulative GPA (weighted): 4.0
PSATs: 197
SATs: Expecting 700+ for math, 700+ (CR), 650+ (writing).
APs: Taking chem, bio, maybe chinese next year. 5 for all. I heard that you could get out of the foreign language requirement with the AP chinese, not sure if it is true. 5 for AP Calc AB
SATII: taking Chem, Math II and maybe Bio if I can study for it in time.</p>
<p>EC’s: </p>
<p>Art Club member for 4 years – switched to ODAC this year, going to switch to Journalism next year if possible
ABRSM Piano grade 8
Learning taekwondo, might be first dan by the time I graduate (next year)
Volunteering at NLB/action for aids</p>
<p>Acads:
Majoring in bio, math, physics, honors in chemistry
Grades have been taking on an upward trend from 1.74 in year 1 sem 2. Currently at 4.8.
Won 2nd at a blog competition on recycling</p>
<p>Colleges:</p>
<p>Mt. Holyoke
Bryn Mawr
Wellesley
Reed
Smith
NUS
Loughborough University
UBC</p>
<p>Major: Chem/Psychology –> I plan on doing physiotherapy/medical social work as a career.</p>
<p>I’m pretty open to applying to any uni, as long as the college is relatively small. I prefer women only colleges though those with a low ratio of guys is also fine with me; they have to be LGBT friendly though. Please, please tell me if the colleges I’m thinking about are too unreachable. I would love to hear another opinion on my choices.</p>
<p>Do you need financial aid? It affects chances at some schools.</p>
<p>Also consider Scripps (where you can take classes at any of the consortium schools) and Barnard (also for classes across the street at Columbia).</p>
<p>I think your stats are pretty good for at least most of the collges in your list … well maybe except … isn’t NUS = National University of Singapore which is pretty hard to get in but i’m sure you know better than me</p>
<p>btw i know someone who went to Mt. Holyoke and she liked it, they have a fair share of international students … but don’t know about ranking wise</p>
<p>just out of curiousity and you don’t have to answer if you don’t feel comfortable … why do you prefer a women only college?</p>
<p>Well, they work in a hospital setting, and do do stuff like enabling a patient to be discharged on time.</p>
<p>@Zerolife Well for me, NUS is pretty easy to get into and it’s the most affordable, thus my wanting to go there. It’s my safety so to speak. As for the women only college, well, I don’t feel comfortable with guys tbh. And I’ve been in a guys dominated school throughout since pri 1, and want a change of environment. </p>
<p>@vossron I don’t need financial aid, though I would apply for it for Mt. Holyoke and Smith. I read that Mt Holyoke is generally needblind for internationals though.</p>
Mt Holyoke is not need-blind for internationals, although it is one of the most generous liberal arts colleges when you look at the total number of students provided with aid. (That does not mean that its aid packages are very generous. My current international roommate and I were both admitted to Mount Holyoke on financial aid, and we both thought that their offer was disappointingly low.)</p>
<p>Ah. Thanks for clearing that up! With that said, will my chances be affected dramatically if I do apply for financial aid? I don’t know if my scores would put Mt. Holyoke as a reach or a match… :</p>
<p>that’s a 3.2 GPA or 3.44 max.
you’ll be straight-up disadvantaged when compared to most American applicants, at least for Smith and Wellesley. the SAT scores will be fine for those colleges (at least for the US pool), but probably won’t give you a big plus.</p>
<p>on face, the CCA record isn’t exceptional. colleges have been shifting away from laundry-lists to looking at applicants who devote themselves at one thing. if you’re really good at art, i’d say continue it and try to polish that into a hook. getting a year out of ODAC or journalism might be fun or good for personal development, but unless you excel within that year, it doesn’t do much for apps.</p>
<p>anyway, there’s a very very small pool of singaporean applicants to LACs, particularly women’s colleges. by extension, it’s somewhat unlikely that you’ll get very precise information from this board, so take the advice you get here with a pinch of salt.</p>
<p>Hm, Actually, the only thing I might have considerable talent in would be taekwondo. But my school doesn’t offer it as a cca so it would not appear in my transcript. Can I still mention that I do that in my app?</p>
<p>^ Why not? Especially if you have participated in/won competitions or achieved say a red or black belt or something (no idea what the actual difficulty levels are).</p>
<p>katlynessa: I get the impression that while to most Singaporeans, “extracurriculars” refer to school-based extracurricular activities (CCAs, school competitions, etc.), most American schools think of extracurriculars as “you have 24 hours in a day - what do you do when you’re not in school?”</p>
<p>By that reckoning, taekwondo should be one of the first things (if not the first!) to go down on your applications even if it doesn’t appear on your transcript. The second thing I’d put down if I were you would be your piano skills. How many hours have you clocked in at NLB/AFA? If the number runs into three figures, that would go down third.</p>
<p>I do think your academic achievements look a bit sparse (especially with your grades and considering your HS - any research? any competitions? presented at any conferences?), though I’m not that sure where the admissions bar is for the schools you name. What I’m pretty sure of is that none of them (except NUS) are safeties. </p>
<p>I also think that if you’re from NUSHS, you might want to aim higher with regards to SATs. Why not gun for a minimum 750M/750CR/700W? If you’re taking AP Bio, you probably won’t have a problem doing SAT II Bio, and I say you should go for 750+ in all those tests as well. I think it’d help cement the fact that you’ve pulled your grades up significantly over the course of your HS career.</p>
<p>I think gt607rmcf hit the nail on the head by pointing out that extracurriculars have a different meaning in the U.S. However, coming from a Singapore bkgrd myself, I understand that given the rigorous nature of our high school curriculum, extracurricular in the U.S. sense is sort of a luxury. But you should be “generous” in listing out those ECs, even if it’s school-based. What about community-involvement the school organizes? Have you played the piano for a social cause?</p>
<p>I also find that many Singapore applicants tend to think a lot of their achievements are not worth mentioning, when this is definitely not the case. So when gt607rmcf talked about academic achievement, also be “generous” in listing them out, even when you think it nothing to hoot about. Won any school-based awards? What about representing the school for something?</p>